A new report has shed more light on the CEO succession plans at Disney, with a story from The Wall Street Journal saying leading candidate Josh D’Amaro wants to focus more on gaming. The same report also suggested that Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson is not going to get the job.
It was previously reported that Disney’s board considered external candidates to take over for Bob Iger, including Wilson. But the new report said Disney is likely to choose an internal candidate. Wilson, for his part, is staying on with EA amidst the company’s $55 billion sale.
The new Disney CEO could be D’Amaro, who is currently the current head of Disney Experiences–a sprawling unit that covers theme parks, consumer products, cruise ships, and video games. The WSJ report said D’Amaro–who is “widely considered” to be named the next CEO–wants to give video games “a bigger role at the company.” The report said D’Amaro is also looking to integrate “gaming technology” into Disney’s creative processes. No further details were divulged, however.
Disney already uses Epic’s Unreal technology for filmmaking, with The Mandalorian employing the Fortnite tech to project scenes onto LED screens surrounding the physical set.
D’Amaro is already making moves at Disney in regards to gaming. He spearheaded Disney’s $1.5 billion investment into Epic Games for a future Fortnite collaboration and has previously discussed why gaming is so important to Disney.
D’Amaro said Walt Disney himself was an “adventurer” and a “risk-taker,” going on to say what Disney is now trying to achieve through Fortnite is an extension of that spirit.
“We should never rest on past success. We should always look for the next big idea, the next big challenge,” he said. “If we’d always relied on what worked in the past, the Walt Disney Company might not exist today. As consumer preferences continue to shift, we have to adapt, or we are going to be left behind.”
Characters and content from Disney’s Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and Avatar brands, among others, will be represented in Fortnite. Disney and Epic have yet to officially unveil any specific projects in Fortnite tied to Disney, but many are hoping to see some kind of “virtual Disney World.”
For more, be sure read GameSpot’s rundown of everything we know about the Disney x Fortnite project.
Disney was at one time a bigger player in the world of video games, as the company had its own dedicated internal gaming division with Disney Interactive Studios. Disney also operated the once-popular Disney Infinity “toys-to-life” brand, but it also shuttered. Today, Disney’s efforts in gaming mainly involve licensing its brands to other companies. In 2019, Iger spoke candidly about Disney’s struggles making and publishing games internally, admitting, “We haven’t been particularly good…”
Disney does, however, do some internal game production and development within the Disney Experiences team. Right now, the company has four open positions for video games, including multiple producer roles and a pair of engineering jobs.
As for Iger, he has said he plans to leave Disney at the end of 2026, and many are speculating his replacement could be named early next year. As many may recall, Iger retired at the end of 2021, but came back in November 2022 after his replacement, Bob Chapek, was dismissed amid multiple controversies.
